dpkg-gencontrol

NAME

dpkg-gencontrol - generate Debian control files

SYNOPSIS

dpkg-gencontrol
[options]

DESCRIPTION

dpkg-gencontrol
reads information from an unpacked Debian source tree and generates a
binary package control file (which defaults to debian/tmp/DEBIAN/control);
during this process it will simplify the relation fields.

Thus
Pre-Depends, Depends, Recommends and Suggests
are simplified in this
order by removing dependencies which are known to be true according to the
stronger dependencies already parsed. It will also remove any self-dependency
(in fact it will remove any dependency which evaluates to true given the
current version of the package as installed). Logically it keeps the
intersection of multiple dependencies on the same package. The order
of dependencies is preserved as best as possible: if any dependency
must be discarded due to another dependency appearing further
in the field, the superseding dependency will take the place of the
discarded one.

The other relation fields
(Enhances, Conflicts, Breaks, Replaces and Provides)
are also simplified individually by computing the union of the various
dependencies when a package is listed multiple times in the field.

dpkg-gencontrol
also adds an entry for the binary package to
debian/files.

OPTIONS

-vversion

Sets the version number of the binary package which will be generated.

-Vname=value

Set an output substitution variable. See deb-substvars(5) for
discussion of output substitution.

-Tsubstvarsfile

Read substitution variables in
substvarsfile;
the default is
debian/substvars.

-Dfield=value

Override or add an output control file field.

-Ufield

Remove an output control file field.

-ccontrolfile

Specifies the main source control file to read information from. The
default is
debian/control.

-lchangelogfile

Specifies the change log file to read information from. The
default is
debian/changelog.

-ffileslistfile

Read or write the list of files to be uploaded here, rather than using
debian/files.

-Fchangelogformat

Specifies the format of the changelog. By default the format is read
from a special line near the bottom of the changelog or failing that
defaults to the debian standard format.

-ppackage

Generate information for the binary package
package.
If the source control file lists only one binary package then this
option may be omitted; otherwise it is essential to select which
binary package's information to generate.

-nfilename

Assume the filename of the package will be
filename
instead of the normal package_version_arch.deb filename.

-is, -ip, -isp

These options are ignored for compatibility with older versions of
dpkg-dev but are now deprecated. Previously they were used to tell
dpkg-gencontrol to include the Section and Priority fields in the
control file. This is now the default behaviour. If you want to
get the old behaviour you can use the
-U
option to delete the fields from the control file.

-Ppackagebuilddir

Tells
dpkg-source
that the package is being built in
packagebuilddir
instead of
debian/tmp.
This value is used to find the default value of the
Installed-Size
substitution variable and control file field (using
du),
and for the default location of the output file.

-O

Print the control file to standard output, rather than to
debian/tmp/DEBIAN/control
(or
packagebuilddir/DEBIAN/control
if
-P
was used).

-h, --help

Show the usage message and exit.

--version

Show the version and exit.

FILES

debian/control

The main source control information file, giving version-independent
information about the source package and the binary packages it can
produce.

debian/files

The list of generated files which are part of the upload being
prepared.
dpkg-gencontrol
adds the presumed filenames of binary packages whose control files it
generates here.